You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
I first read Putin Country: A Journey Into the Real Russia back in 2017 and decided to reread it to see how it fared against the current situation with Putin invading Ukraine. Anne Garrels, a former NPR correspondent, visits Chelyabinsk, one city in Russia, and the various facets of that city and her people. She talks to people (who dare to speak with her) about what matters to them, their causes, and concerns.
Among the topics covered are stability at what cost, LGBTQ issues, Healthcare, Families, Religion, Freedom of Speech, environmental damage from nuclear waste, and the fallout of the 20th-century. Of course, Putin is center stage—hard to believe how long he has been in charge and this book was written about ten years ago.
I found the information on the Russian military to be particularly interesting—corruption, uneducated conscripts, hazing, bullying, and lies. She describes Russian parents searching through dead bodies in search of their sons after they’ve been left on battlefields. Corrupt officers don’t report deaths to grift off the system. Hard to not see how Ukraine's tractors are winning against tanks.
There are many parallels in the Russia of 2012 with what is happening in the U.S. now. Reading this now, you see what has led up to this moment of now. And more frighteningly, you see echoes happening in our own country and could very well be our own future unless we work to stamp out fascism here at home.
Here are a few parallels that struck me while reading:
*Accusing the LGBTQ community of grooming
*people believing state-run propaganda machines (in our case slipping into our tribe run machines)
*not caring about special needs children (there they encourage parents to give them up)
*having a healthcare system that doesn’t seem to work well
*putting the chicken farm on radioactive land (i.e. not cleaning up our messes)
*censorship and cancel culture combined in one system (don’t attend a rally and your boss will make sure the heat is turned off near your desk)
*bribery and corruption exhibited as normal by our last administration
Is Russia something we want to emulate? Personally, I’d take America’s can-do attitude, a military that leaves no man behind, and all of muh freedoms. F*ck Putin.
Among the topics covered are stability at what cost, LGBTQ issues, Healthcare, Families, Religion, Freedom of Speech, environmental damage from nuclear waste, and the fallout of the 20th-century. Of course, Putin is center stage—hard to believe how long he has been in charge and this book was written about ten years ago.
I found the information on the Russian military to be particularly interesting—corruption, uneducated conscripts, hazing, bullying, and lies. She describes Russian parents searching through dead bodies in search of their sons after they’ve been left on battlefields. Corrupt officers don’t report deaths to grift off the system. Hard to not see how Ukraine's tractors are winning against tanks.
There are many parallels in the Russia of 2012 with what is happening in the U.S. now. Reading this now, you see what has led up to this moment of now. And more frighteningly, you see echoes happening in our own country and could very well be our own future unless we work to stamp out fascism here at home.
Here are a few parallels that struck me while reading:
*Accusing the LGBTQ community of grooming
*people believing state-run propaganda machines (in our case slipping into our tribe run machines)
*not caring about special needs children (there they encourage parents to give them up)
*having a healthcare system that doesn’t seem to work well
*putting the chicken farm on radioactive land (i.e. not cleaning up our messes)
*censorship and cancel culture combined in one system (don’t attend a rally and your boss will make sure the heat is turned off near your desk)
*bribery and corruption exhibited as normal by our last administration
Is Russia something we want to emulate? Personally, I’d take America’s can-do attitude, a military that leaves no man behind, and all of muh freedoms. F*ck Putin.
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
Superb first hand account reporting. A peak behind the Iron Curtain that supposedly fell with Communism.
Garrels has been visiting and living in the medium-sized city of Chelyabinsk, a thousand miles east of Moscow, for decades. Her profiles of various people - doctors, teachers, journalists, evangelicals, addicts, et al. - provide a broad look at how people are coping in 21st century Russia under Putin. As she describes it, the corruption and deception of the government is all-encompassing. People can't trust each other, almost everyone is filled with despair, they drink too much, and pollution is everywhere. Of course, it's not uniformly terrible, but the famous Russian fatalism is rampant. Despite some interesting perspectives on Putin's popularity, more analysis would have made this a more illuminating account.
very well observed, detailed descriptions of semi-rural Russia. a very good study of the mentality , or soul, if you will, of a set of ordinary Russian people.
Hundreds of miles away from Moscow, Anne Garrels, longtime NPR correspondent (if you listen to the audiobook as I did, you will undoubtedly recognize her voice!) describes the "Real Russia". Using the medium-sized industrial city of Chelyabinsk as a microcosm for the country and culture as a whole, Garrels uses her expertise in investigative journalism to tell the stories of many Russians she has known over the decades, and the new faces she meets.
There is fear, there is frustration, and there is fortitude. The people believe in Russia, and many people in this region, as the title suggests, are ardent Putin supporters (though when pressed, they cannot name many things that they particularly like about the leader, and many disagree with some of his policies).
It's a fascinating portrait, and it makes me want to read more on the subject.
There is fear, there is frustration, and there is fortitude. The people believe in Russia, and many people in this region, as the title suggests, are ardent Putin supporters (though when pressed, they cannot name many things that they particularly like about the leader, and many disagree with some of his policies).
It's a fascinating portrait, and it makes me want to read more on the subject.
dark
tense
medium-paced
Devoured it in 1 day. Yes, this was for class, but yes, I also loved it. Super fascinating read!